[98_Martin]

I finally bit the bullet this weekend and took off the bonnet liner that has always let down the engine bay on the odd occasion that the bonnets up...

At the moment I won't be replacing it, but I will report back if any paint starts blistering... my guess on that is that it won't given the temperatures that the paint has to survive in the hottest of climates. There may be a slight increase in engine noise but the V6 sounds sweet anyway, so I'll live with that, perhaps diesel owners won't be so inclined to remove it as I imagine it does remove some of the harshness.

Alongside this I also did the airbox mod that is perhaps more popular across the pond which slightly increases induction noise and apparently increases airflow. An easy job of cutting/sanding the plastic fins on the roof of the air filter cover, a Dremel certainly makes life easier doing it. So far I can't comment on the effects as I haven't had the engine past idle but do look forward to hearing it at WOT.

 

[Euan Tausney]

My thoughts with these are that they are still a technical MoT failure, as has been mentioned in other threads on the forum.
People will say they have had the car pass an MoT without any issue... but if the MoT tester were to test according to the rules, they are an automatic fail.

They do look great though.

Yes they do look great! My MOT man had no issues with mine, and I did ask him about the rules. He stated as all looks OEM, mine has twin projectors each headlight, but the LED bulbs I have fitted cannot be seen, and there is nothing to see from behind the light, he couldn't fail it as seen.

 

[MarkFY]

Yes they do look great! My MOT man had no issues with mine, and I did ask him about the rules. He stated as all looks OEM, mine has twin projectors each headlight, but the LED bulbs I have fitted cannot be seen, and there is nothing to see from behind the light, he couldn't fail it as seen.

But clearly they are LED (pretty obvious when they do the beam tests) and therefore obviously modified, and therefore should be a default fail.

If you get away with it then well done you. Not everybody will have an MoT tester "overlooking" the obvious and be as lucky.

But of course this topic has been mentioned many times before.

 

[Euan Tausney]

I have never seen a beam test done (to my cars) in all my days, and that's a few!

 

[MarkFY]

I have never seen a beam test done (to my cars) in all my days, and that's a few!

Perhaps I used the wrong word... 'beam'... the headlamp 'aim' test would potentially indicate the use of LED lamps, especially to an MoT tester that has tested X-Types previously, which will be pretty much most of them

The MOT headlamp aim test is changing - Matters of Testing

Official advice and information about MOT testing from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).

mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk

But let's not debate or argue. At the end of the day, the rules are what they are

 

[Euan Tausney]

Beam test or aim test, I have never seen the red box used in any of my cars. I have seen it used in some old bangers with obviously wonky lights, but very rarely.

 

[MarkFY]

Beam test or aim test, I have never seen the red box used in any of my cars. I have seen it used in some old bangers with obviously wonky lights, but very rarely.

Good for you. I would hope they at least turn your headlamps on during your MoT...

Anyway, as said previously... no need to debate or discuss. The MoT rules are clear and that's what I'm talking about.

 

[Euan Tausney]

Can you spot any bulb behind the projector lens

 

[MarkFY]

...
Sorry Martin... this is slightly de-railing your thread.

 

[JimC64]

I finally bit the bullet this weekend and took off the bonnet liner that has always let down the engine bay on the odd occasion that the bonnets up...

View attachment 55870
View attachment 55871

At the moment I won't be replacing it, but I will report back if any paint starts blistering... my guess on that is that it won't given the temperatures that the paint has to survive in the hottest of climates. There may be a slight increase in engine noise but the V6 sounds sweet anyway, so I'll live with that, perhaps diesel owners won't be so inclined to remove it as I imagine it does remove some of the harshness.

Alongside this I also did the airbox mod that is perhaps more popular across the pond which slightly increases induction noise and apparently increases airflow. An easy job of cutting/sanding the plastic fins on the roof of the air filter cover, a Dremel certainly makes life easier doing it. So far I can't comment on the effects as I haven't had the engine past idle but do look forward to hearing it at WOT.

View attachment 55872

Can't fault you on the way you love the ole girl Martin, certainly into all the bits n bobs, continually improving

Jim

 

[98_Martin]

Can't fault you on the way you love the ole girl Martin, certainly into all the bits n bobs, continually improving

Jim

Thanks Jim, I like to think that it's continually improving, sometimes small though the repairs/modifications are.

I did get a more pressing repair also done last weekend which was sealing the rear output flange nut on the transfer box with great help and advice from @rayUK who I can't thank enough as he always has the answers and information. It was obvious that since me filling the oil up on the TB earlier this year it has been slowly seeping out from the threads and back of the nut and then getting flung from the prop shaft up onto the crossmember above. I should have taken a photo of the process but was wrestling that much with it that I forgot and was really lacking wriggle room under the car, another job that would have been great to do on a lift, oh how that list grows.

At some point in the near future the drain on the transfer box will need to be looked at again I fear for a thread more suitable (e.g BSPT/NPT) and possibly use a permanently fixed one-way valve on the side of the TB in place of current plug that others use for the draining and filling procedure. The strength of the M8 fine thread that I'm currently using does seem to be weakening and the sealing surface although flat to the eye is not that of a machined surface. I feel that a taper thread with a tapping hole size slightly bigger than the current M8 would be more suited and would allow the combined use of a thread sealant and taper fit. It would also give the option of a flush fitting plug that uses an internal hex or square drive which would mean no more worrying about it fouling on any objects on the road. This would of course have to be done along with the side filling point modification to avoid oil contamination in the sealant which would otherwise currently happen, or.... jack up that one side of the car like everyone else for the filling purpose only. The initial plans are there but I'll need to give some more thought to it.

 

[98_Martin]

This evening after coming home from work I dove headfirst into the first major service under my ownership as the car approaches 70,000 miles, a change of fluids including engine oil, automatic transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant and the power steering fluid of course including all the filters, air, oil and fuel. But to begin with I decided to do the spark plugs as they involved the most work which begun by removing the air intake as many will know. It was at this point that I hit my first unexpected roadblock....

I assumed (first mistake - never assume) that I'd be the first to be doing a sparkplug change so expected everything to be factory and therefore relatively painless. However, when unbolting the inlet manifold and finding someone failed to reinstall the nut that holds on the rear bracket to a cam cover stud, I realised that I was indeed not the first to be delving into the depths of the V6. In honesty this actually made my life slightly easier as the bolt which secures the bracket to the manifold is slightly tricky to remove given its blind location. Unfortunately, this was this first of a larger issue that I found which I expect to be trickier to resolve properly.

Let's play spot the difference of the ignition coils.

Now I won't mock this fixing bracket too harshly as it has actually done a very good job of holding the coil in place, but it is still a shame to take the cowboy approach and not actually fix the problem that whoever did this caused. A broken bolt....

After removing the coil it actually showed a larger problem that at first I thought was just a perished rubber from the coil but indeed it is the aluminium casting that I can only assume was caused by the overtightening of the original bolt. A replacement cam cover would cure both of these problems but the work that it is going to add and the waiting of more parts and gaskets is certainly going to knock my aim to finish before the end of the weekend out of the park. So that is where I have finished for this evening, on a slightly somber note.

 

[JimC64]

This evening after coming home from work I dove headfirst into the first major service under my ownership as the car approaches 70,000 miles, a change of fluids including engine oil, automatic transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant and the power steering fluid of course including all the filters, air, oil and fuel. But to begin with I decided to do the spark plugs as they involved the most work which involved removing the air intake as many will know. It was at this point that I hit my first unexpected roadblock....

I assumed (first mistake - never assume) that I'd be the first to be doing a sparkplug change so expected everything to be factory and therefore relatively painless. However, when unbolting the inlet manifold and finding someone failed to reinstall the nut that holds on the rear bracket to a cam cover stud, I realised that I was indeed not the first to be delving into the depths of the V6. In honesty this actually made my life slightly easier as the bolt which secures the bracket to the manifold is slightly tricky to remove given its blind location. Unfortunately, this was this first of a larger issue that I found which I expect to be trickier to resolve properly.

View attachment 56669

Let's play spot the difference of the ignition coils.

View attachment 56670

Now I won't mock this fixing bracket too harshly as it has actually done a very good job of holding the coil in place, but it is still a shame to take the cowboy approach and not actually fix the problem that whoever did this caused. A broken bolt....

View attachment 56671

View attachment 56674

After removing the coil it actually showed a larger problem that at first I thought was just a perished rubber from the coil but indeed it is the aluminium casting that I can only assume was caused by the overtightening of the original bolt. A replacement cam cover would cure both of these problems but the work that it is going to add and the waiting of more parts and gaskets is certainly going to knock my aim to finish before the end of the weekend out of the park. So that is where I have finished for this evening, on a slightly somber note.

Thats a shame Martin, sorry to hear.

That said, I think if you knew of these issues you would want to fix anyway, just at your leisure.

The full all singing dancing service, with all fluids, oils and filters etc..... one sorted car

Chin up
Jim

 

[98_Martin]

Thats a shame Martin, sorry to hear.

That said, I think if you knew of these issues you would want to fix anyway, just at your leisure.

The full all singing dancing service, with all fluids, oils and filters etc..... one sorted car

Chin up
Jim

As the old saying goes "Every 20 minute job is one broken bolt away from becoming a 3 day ordeal"

You're right, it's not impossible problems to fix just ones that I didn't expect to. I've had a look and second-hand cam covers can be had for not too much money but if I want to get the car back on the road for next Monday I think this one will have to stay in place unfortunately. I'll put it all back together how it sits and aim to sort it next spring with a refurbished cam cover and new gaskets, might even do the other bank for safe measure also.

It should be. Perhaps something I should have done last year for my first service but I've only done about 3000 miles since then when I changed the oil, filters and brake fluid so I don't feel too bad. It certainly gives me a baseline for the rest of my ownership regarding servicing and fluid change cycles.

 

[98_Martin]

With the inlet manifold off the car currently I decided to take the time to clean it up with some glass bead media blasting and also tried porting for the first time, notably behind the throttle body which has a very unsightly and inefficient casting vane. I think it came up pretty well and should increase the power by about 20hp with how smooth and uninterrupted the air will be traveling now... just kidding . But I do imagine a very marginal increase in top end and possibly milage however difficult to measure that would be. Overall, a very cheap and not too difficult improvement to make.

 

[PetA]

Nicely done Sir!

 

[JimC64]

Nicely done Sir!

As per Pete, good job Martin

Jim

 

[98_Martin]

Nicely done Sir!

As per Pete, good job Martin

Jim

Many thanks gents

Spent this afternoon getting it all bolted together after changing the sparkplugs, upper inlet manifold gaskets, control valve O-rings and the throttle body gasket. The O-rings on the two upper vacuum lines and MAP sensor were all in good condition so I just rubbed them over with silicone grease before reinstalling to feed the rubber and soften them. I've also ordered a second-hand rear cam shaft cover in good condition that at some point I'll get around to refurbishing and fitting which should then be the last of the engine servicing and preventative maintenance for a while, I hope.

Before:

After:

 

[JimC64]

Many thanks gents

Spent this afternoon getting it all bolted together after changing the sparkplugs, upper inlet manifold gaskets, control valve O-rings and the throttle body gasket. The O-rings on the two upper vacuum lines and MAP sensor were all in good condition so I just rubbed them over with silicone grease before reinstalling to feed the rubber and soften them. I've also ordered a second-hand rear cam shaft cover in good condition that at some point I'll get around to refurbishing and fitting which should then be the last of the engine servicing and preventative maintenance for a while, I hope.

Before:
View attachment 56744

After:
View attachment 56745

What a difference Martin, superb!

Much better looking.

Curious though, why the JAGUAR in Green and the V6 in white?
Was this you or PO and is it staying as is?

That bay with a little clean and a liberal spraying of Autoglym vinyl and rubber will look very nice.

PS; You're low on washer fluid

Jim

 

[98_Martin]

What a difference Martin, superb!

Much better looking.

Curious though, why the JAGUAR in Green and the V6 in white?
Was this you or PO and is it staying as is?

That bay with a little clean and a liberal spraying of Autoglym vinyl and rubber will look very nice.

PS; You're low on washer fluid

Jim

Thanks Jim

It does look white in pictures but it's actually a matt silver. It was indeed me that did it, felt that doing it all in the green would be a little too dark so added some contrast. I first did it with the colours reversed but there was too much silver that way so sanded it down and did it again which is how it sits now. It was shortly after doing the sparkplug cover for my Lotus Elise, sort of a phase of enjoying the hand painting during last winter.

Well spotted on the washer fluid